Free Will

Reading this online for the first 2 chapter. My order of the book finally arrived on 3rd week of April 2012. Chapter 1"Consider what it would take to actually have free will. You would need to be aware of all the factors that determine your thoughts and actions, and you would need to have complete control over those factors. But there is a paradox here that vitiates the very notion of freedom—for what would influence the influences? More influences? None of these adventitious mental states are the real you. You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it. You are the storm."I like it that even if there is no real free will, we still need the freedom to do what we do. We are the storm, and we are not lost in it. He explain more on this video on how he couldn't choose something that his subconscious mind hasn't come up with. "People feel (or presume) an authorship of their thoughts and actions that is illusory. If we were to detect their conscious choices on a brain scanner seconds before they were aware of them, they would be rightly astonished—because this would directly challenge their status as conscious agents in control of their inner lives. We know that we could perform such an experiment, at least in principle, and if we tuned the machine correctly, subjects would feel that we were reading their minds (or controlling them)."That would be so cool to do experiment on yourself. To see that thoughts come from within before we are aware of its existence. Further argument. Spoiler alert:If we human could find a vaccine or medicine that take away the "evil" part of human, so that human is in control and would not commit murder or harm another person by being "out of control" or "have the intention to harm. Then if those who didn't receive the vaccine committed crimes, we would not blame them, we would treat it as a medical condition. I agree that religious definition of sin is the worst kind of guideline for morality that lead to evil doing by religious people. We should recognize the precondition for someone that could commit crime and try to eliminate these precondition. Although the book is a bit short, I like the way he address the reader like he is talking to them. Overall, enjoyable read.

What is Free Will? Does it exist? Do you have it? Very interesting look at Free Will

It is the kind of book that really makes you take a second look at life and think about over what you actually have control in your life ...

it seems that, free will is going be for psychology as evolution is for biology. It will take years of research and debate to push it through predilection and influence of mainstream ideology. Also, I found references provided especially interesting and beneficial.

Sam Harris can surely pack a lot into a short book. I find myself agreeing for the most part with his presentation, but it will require a reread before it fully sinks in.

I enjoyed reading this book, Harris is as rigorous as always, and it might be very hard to disagree with him. Nonetheless, this fine book solved my existential problems only partly! I would have enjoyed if Harris had elaborated his personal feelings a bit more.